Tschirgi to be a Duck

Chris Fetters, TheInsiders.com

11/20/2002

When Josh Tschirgi got the news, he couldn't believe it. He couldn't do his math at all, but he did have a great day weight training.
The reason? He was going to be offered a scholarship to play football for the University of Oregon. And when OL Coach Neal Zoumboukos made the call, Josh didn't hesitate - even when Zoumboukos said he could sleep on it. Tschirgi didn't need time, he needed to get it off his chest. Josh Tschirgi is an Oregon Duck.

"He called about 35 minutes ago," Josh told Dawgman.com tonight. "When I told him I was ready right now he gave out this
big laugh. He was really excited."

Let's step back a few hours. When the 6-4, 275-pound Tschirgi got to his coach's office, nothing could have prepared him for what
was about to happen. "Coach Zoumboukos emailed my coach, Coach Hellyer and my coach emailed him back, asking about me.
Coach Zoumboukos took the email to Coach Bellotti's office and got it cleared from him to offer me a full scholarship today. When
I got to coach's office, his computer was on. He had this huge smile on his face and he said, 'You should read this.' I just pumped
my fist and went, 'Yeah.'"

Then came the call, which was mere formality at that point. "I'm an Oregon Duck," Josh said. "No offer from any school in the
nation would change my mind." He was scheduled to visit officially in January, but his visit has now been moved up to December
13th. But it's not like he hasn't been to Oregon before. "I went to a camp there and a game when I was in 10th grade and then
went to the NIKE camp too. I've probably already been there 6 times."

Tschirgi is being recruited as a guard, and is the fifth public commitment for the Ducks. He joins Capital's Jordan Carey and
Bethel's Johnny DuRocher as prep players from the state of Washington to make the decision to head south for college.